Las Vegas Weekly

[Our Metropolis]

Dan Goulet

United Way of Southern Nevada President

Following are excerpts from the radio show Our Metropolis, a half-hour issues and affairs program that airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and is hosted by the Greenspun Media Group’s John Katsilometes. Tune in next week to hear the rest of this interview with United Way of Southern Nevada President Dan Goulet, or listen to the show below.

On the late Robert Goulet: “Actually, I’m a second cousin. I get asked about it everywhere I go; whenever I valet park, I’m asked about it. Usually now I just go by ‘Dan’ instead of ‘Goulet.’”

On the needs of children in the Las Vegas Valley:“We looked at some models that had great, great public-education systems ... what we found in cities like Boston and Chicago, which have traditional long-term high test scores and low dropout rates, is the children had a quality preschool experience. It starts there.”

On the effects of poor health care for students: “We did a 40-year study of students in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and one of the things we found is, if kids aren’t healthy, they’re not going to be able to learn. If a kid has a rotten tooth, he can’t concentrate to learn. If he can’t see the board because he needs glasses, he can’t learn.”

On the United Way’s goal of raising $14 million in the next year: “We spent a lot of time as an organization wondering whether that was the right move, but in an economy like we have today, the needs of our agencies are tremendous. They’ve been growing. Some of our agencies have a 100-percent increase in client load … but we also know that the community has great potential to give.”